This invention relates to assembly, distribution, and use of digital information.
Assembly, distribution, and use of information in digital form is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception to using "hard" copy. Virtually every kind of information may be treated in this way: sounds and music, executable programs, databases, pictures, animations, and fonts. The devices for embodying the digital information also vary widely. Examples include high-capacity storage media, like CD-ROMs, and switched telephone network communication.
In the case of CD-ROMs, publishers often already have available bundles of digital information which are being distributed in other modes (for example, on low-density diskettes). Because of the large capacity of CD-ROMs many bundles of digital information may be stored on a single disk. The bundles may be related, as in a set of different type fonts, or they may be unrelated. The publisher assembles the different bundles and creates a master data file which is then used to produce multiple identical disks for distribution.
A bundle stored on the CD-ROM may include not only the content which interests the end user (e.g., the text of an encyclopedia), but also executable programs which enable the user to find and make use of the content.